Google Can’t Escape EDTX by Cherry-Picking Witnesses, says Judge

(Tyler, Texas – Friday, September 24, 2014) Judge Roy Payne of the Eastern District of Texas denied Google Inc.’s Motion to Transfer a patent infringement case against them to Northern California. “The Court is significantly concerned that Google is not being fully candid,” wrote Judge Payne. He further agreed Tuesday with the Rockstar Consortium LP that Google’s motion represented “cherry picking prior art witnesses,” that “non-party witnesses at issue in this case are distributed across the United States and not solely located in or generally closer to the Northern District of California.” Google argued that “all or nearly all” of its records and engineers are “ultimately managed from” its headquarters in Mountain View, California; but the court responded that in these statements Google provided “neither evidence of where its documents are actually located nor evidence that these documents are more available or accessible from the Northern District of California than they would be from the Eastern District of Texas… Google’s Motion simply recites the location of its headquarters but is essentially silent as to all other Google locations…” including its Dallas location.

Rockstar’s lawsuit accuses Google of infringing seven search engine patents, numbered 6,098,065; 7,236,969; 7,469,245; 7,672,970; 7,895,178; 7,895,183; and 7,933,883. Federal Judge Payne ruled that Google failed to show that “the movant’s desired forum is clearly more convenient than the forum where the case was filed.” Payne further stated that “it is unclear whether and how much relevant evidence actually exists within the Northern District of California.”

Rockstar Consortium is a patent licensing group consisting of Apple, Microsoft, Sony, Blackberry, and Ericsson. Rockstar’s patents, including the search and advertising related patents at issue in this case, consist primarily of patents acquired from Nortel at its bankruptcy.